Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Gen. Stanley McChrystal may resign or be fired this week because of critical comments he and his staff made about their commander in chief and his team. McChrystal was hand picked by president Obama to oversee the occupation of Afghanistan. Tomorrow he must show up at the white house and explain himself to his boss.

Michael Hastings is a freelancer assigned to cover McChrystal for Rolling Stone magazine. He was scheduled to spend two days with the general in Paris, but as luck would have it, the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano kept Hastings from leaving Europe. He asked to accompany McChrystal on a bus trip to Berlin and ended up spending ten days with him. On the bus McChrystal and his staff drank “the whole way” and “let loose.” In vino veritas. Perhaps volcanoes bring a little veritas too.

One staffer claimed that Obama was “intimidated” by military brass, others snickered at vice president Biden dubbing him “Bite Me” (can’t blame them). Most importantly, they openly expressed doubt that the war, the longest in American history, is at all winnable.

It is easy to focus on the gossipy parts of this story only to lose sight of the most important fact. The United States has occupied Afghanistan since 2001 and killed thousands of its people, all in an effort to keep us “safer” from terrorist attacks. The occupation must end, and it makes no difference if McChrystal or someone else is in charge of this great wrong doing.

The U.S. presence in Afghanistan is just one more straw that will eventually break the back of the empire. No one knows when or how that fall will take place, but fall it will and not without taking a big chunk of humanity with it.

Resistance is not only non futile but it is necessary. It would be terrible if the U.S. faced no resistance from a subjugated population. Long live the resistance, and down with McChrystal or whoever else gets to sit in that corner office.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Better late than never I guess. As I pointed out in my Black Agenda Report column back in February, professor Amy Bishop should have been charged with murdering her own brother back in 1986. Despite holding hostages and pointing a gun at police, she was never charged with a crime. In 2010 she walked into a staff meeting at the University of Alabama and murdered three of her colleagues.

Bishop has now been indicted for her brother’s murder. Thank God for small favors. I certainly hope that the victims’ families sue the authorities in Massachusetts who allowed this travesty to take place.

Monday, June 14, 2010

I have reached my limit. Last week one of my senators, Charles Schumer, proudly said that Gaza should be "strangled." Now my congressman is trying to out do him with pro-Israeli rhetoric. I know the drill. You can't raise money in New York unless you march in lock step with the zionists. I don't want to hear any more excuses. I don't care if Rangel and Schumer are pro choice or anti the things I don't like. I won't cast my vote for either of them again. I guess it is official. I have dumped the democrats for good.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

There are unconfirmed news reports of a seven year old child being hung by the Taliban in Helmand province Afghanistan. According to these reports, the child was accused of being a spy.

If true, it is simply awful, an atrocity. But I’m not convinced that the story has any validity at all. The story is completely unsourced, which isn’t necessarily proof of a lie, but we shouldn’t cast aside skepticism either.

Strategically placed tales of atrocities have always been used to keep the public in a war loving mood. I find it odd that there hasn’t been any press interviewing family or other towns people. President Karzai called the killing a crime against humanity, “if confirmed.” Doesn’t the president have confirmation? I would think he would. Such confirmation would constitute a huge propaganda victory.

Even if true, this report should give rise to some self criticism on the part of Americans.

A Taliban source in Helmand told CBS News' Sami Yousafzai on Thursday he was aware of the boy being killed, but that it was a case of a militant settling a personal vendetta against the boy's family, then using the spying charges as an excuse. The source said he believed the boy's executor had fled across the border to Pakistan.

The hanging comes as a Taliban commander in neighboring Kandahar province -- the Taliban's traditional home territory -- tells CBS News that a suicide attack on a wedding party that left 40 people dead was "collective punishment" for villagers standing up to the Islamic militants' control in the region.

If Israel massacres Gazans to exact collective punishment, why is it worse for the Taliban to do the same thing? When Israel was dropping bombs that killed little children, the United States Congress passed a resolution supporting that atrocity. Only five House members had the courage to vote nay. If the Taliban did commit this act they have now made themselves the equal of the Israeli and American governments.

Finally we have some good news for reproductive rights. We certainly need some. Politicians who live in fear and loathing of female sexuality have lately piled on in their efforts to prevent women from exercising their right to abortion.

But Planned Parenthood of Iowa has found a way to provide services to women who don’t live near abortion clinics. Doctors use video conferencing to prescribe RU486, mifepristone, a drug which induces abortion without the need of a surgical procedure.

The right to lifers are beside themselves with anger, suddenly concerned about the violation of the doctor/patient relationship. Too bad for them. RU486 is legal and it gives options to women who consider abortion. It is a very good thing that Iowans don’t have to run a gauntlet of abortion haters and have the ability to make their choice in the privacy of their own homes.

Margaret Kimberley

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